Evendale, Ohio, US – January 6, 2009 -- The GE Rolls-Royce Fighter Engine Team has launched a new website to enable easy access to information about the F136 engine for the F-35 Lightning II.

The F136 engine is the most advanced fighter aircraft engine ever developed and will be available to power all variants of the F-35 Lightning II aircraft for the US military and eight partner nations supporting the development program.

The website contains information about the F136 engine and the Fighter Engine Team, as well as recent press releases, graphics, photos and video.

It will serve as a one-stop location to find all the most up-to-date information about the program as well as the history of the F136 engine.

The F136 engine is being jointly produced by GE and Rolls-Royce, two global leaders in propulsion.

The first product-configuration F136 engine is being assembled at GE and will begin initial testing in early 2009. By the end of 2009, several F136 engines will be testing, with first flight to follow in an F-35 in 2010. The first production engines will be delivered to customers in 2012. The F136 program is funded in FY 2009.

The first complete new-build F136 engine began testing January 30, 2009, under the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) contract with the US Government Joint Program Office for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. This represents the first complete engine assembled following US Government validation of the F136 design in 2008.

The F136 program has already totaled more than 800 hours of risk-reduction testing with two earlier engine prototypes, incorporating new-build components. The F136 engine is a product of the best technology from two world-leading propulsion companies. The GE Rolls-Royce Fighter Engine Team has designed the only engine specifically developed for the F-35 aircraft, offering extra temperature margin and affordable growth.

“This new F136 engine represents a major achievement for our powerful partnership. We are into the exciting part of the program, as we begin demonstrating what the F136 can do. We’ve combined the best technologies from GE and Rolls-Royce into an outstanding design that will benefit the military customer over the long run,” said Jean Lydon-Rodgers, President of the GE Rolls-Royce Fighter Engine Team.

The first test runs for the new F136 engine top a year of significant achievements for the GE Rolls-Royce Fighter Engine Team. The program successfully completed Critical Design Review in 2008, as well as completing the first testing at the unique, new Peebles, Ohio, test site, and full afterburner test runs at the US Air Force Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) test facility in Tennessee.

On sent un réel enthousiasme au nivea de l'équipe !

The F136 engine program has a solid history of executing its contract on schedule and within budget. As a result, the GE Rolls-Royce Fighter Engine Team consistently receives “exceptional” reviews from the JPO for program execution. [